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2009 isbn 978-91-7668-659-1Kai Wistrand (b. 1972) B.A Informatics. Lecturer and Ph. D student in Informatics at Örebro university. Wistrand’s teaching and research interests mainly focus on systems development methods, systems development practices, and philosophy of science. The author is a member of The Methodology Exploration Laboratory (MELAB) at Örebro university.
Systems development methods are common in the software industry. They aim to help the development processes by giving support in the form of suggested actions and steps to take. The prescriptive nature of systems development methods tells us that they represent an idea of a desired target state or goal and as such they represent rationality. Methods carry a knowledge dimension referred to as Method Rationale and this dimension is the primary reason for the methods’ existence. This dissertation takes a starting point in the concept of method rationale and proposes a Method Component concept capable of carrying and expressing the method rationale dimension. A literature review of existing research on systems development methods results in a synthesis where two polarised fields of research are merged into the field of Extended Method Engineering. The synthesised field aims to serve as a common ground for systems development method research where new knowledge about the practice of systems development can be explored. The Method Component concept and the Method Rationale definition are applied and tested in three empirical settings in order to ascertain their viability and allow them to evolve in a design science fashion.
Örebro Studies in Informatics 1
örebro 2009 Doctoral Dissertation
Method Rationale Revealed – Communication of
Knowledge in Systems Development Methods
Kai Wistrand Informatics
